Your first steps in Linux
DISCOVER ALL THE CORE SKILLS YOU NEED TO START USING LINUX MINT.
When you boot into Mint for the first time, you’ll find it looks very similar to Windows. The default desktop is called Cinnamon, and is structured in a similar way to the Windows desktop: there’s the equivalent of the Start menu, Taskbar and Notification area at the bottom of the screen, with desktop icons providing shortcuts to key locations.
Click the Menu button and up pops a menu with easy access to all your programs, grouped into categories. Speed things up by typing the first few letters of the program you’re looking for into the Search box and it’ll appear in the list of results, just one click away. On the left-hand side of the menu, you’ll see some other handy shortcuts — at the top key programs like Firefox (web browser), Software Manager (for finding and installing new applications), System Settings (the Mint equivalent of the Control Panel), Terminal and files manager. At the bottom are buttons for locking, logging out and shutting down or restarting your PC.
Add your own shortcuts by dragging and dropping items into the list from the desktop or right-hand side of the menu. You can also pin shortcuts to the panel (Mint’s equivalent of the taskbar) at the bottom of the screen too — just right-click and choose ‘Add to panel’ to do so.
Mint’s panel is actually more configurable than Windows’ Taskbar — you’ll see lots of useful options in the bottom right-hand corner, and you can customise these, plus add new panels, simply by right-clicking the panel and selecting from the options on show.
ACCESS DRIVES
Mint works with a wide range of file systems, which means your existing NTFS and FAT32 partitions are visible from the moment you boot into the desktop. The best place to access your drives — and browse your files generally — is with Mint’s equivalent of the File Explorer. It’s named Nemo, and is accessible via the Files shortcuts you’ll find on both the pane and the Menu. You can also open it by doubleclicking the Computer or Home icons on the desktop.
The layout is similar to Windows 10’s File Explorer, with your files displayed in the right-hand pane, and a series of shortcuts to key locations on the left. You can also bookmark favourite folders (select the folder in question and choose ‘Bookmarks > Add to Bookmarks’) for easy access from here, too. Nemo also supports tabbed windows, which work in a similar way to your web browser, albeit with folders. Press Ctrl-T to add additional tabs, which make it easy to switch between multiple drives and folders without cluttering up your desktop with lots of open windows. You’ll see an option for accessing your network in Nemo — click the Network shortcut in the left-hand pane to find other computers, and have your username and password ready if necessary.
You should find your PC’s hardware has been, for the most part, automatically detected and set up. Click the Menu and choose ‘System Settings’ to review current settings under the Hardware section. You can source missing drivers from the manufacturer’s website if necessary.
Now you’ve dipped your toes in the water and discovered it to be not that deep (or cold), take your first system backup of your new dual-boot system using Redo Backup. Once complete, you can start to dig a little deeper into Linux.
Let’s start with the file system — Windows uses NTFS; there’s the universal FAT32 file system, of course, and now you’ve got a third file system, Ext4, in place. When you boot back into Windows you’ll find your Linux partitions are invisible — that’s because Windows can’t see Ext4.
That’s why your shared data partition (if you created one) was formatted as NTFS.